Getting started on low carb when breastfeeding

Do you want to start a low-carb diet while breastfeeding? It can be an excellent way to lose excess weight, while still eating all the nutritious foods that you and your baby needs.

However, you should not eat a strict low-carb diet, as it can – in extremely rare cases – be potentially dangerous when breastfeeding. To be safe choose a more moderate low-carb diet, with at least 50 grams of carbs per day.

Keep reading for more details, and how to adapt the low-carb challenge guide to suit you.

Strict low carb and breastfeeding

In a normal situation people can eat as few carbs as they want – the body can handle it. But when breastfeeding you lose sugar via the milk, possibly around 30 grams per day, sometimes more.

Not eating carbohydrates in this situation can possibly lead to a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis, in rare cases.

There has been about four published cases in the history of the world connected to breastfeeding on low-carb, so the risk should be very low, and apparently they all ended happily. But it could possibly end in tragedy: